Yarn Bombing Theme
It was a cold winter day when I was walking along the streets of West Seattle and found a bike rack. I wasn’t looking for a bike rack. In fact, I didn’t even know this bike rack was here before this particular day. I probably walked past it a hundred times, but I never rode a bike so I had no reason to even notice it. It was gray, roughly shaped like a large, wide U with a bar across it in the center. Kind of like an A, but with a wide top.
The reason I noticed it this time was because it had been decorated with yarn, formed into flowers. I took photos, but the light wasn’t ideal, so forgive their poor quality. That’s the picture there, just below:
It’s hard not to notice something like that, and I liked it. =) So colorful, so bright, so cheery. Look around the rest of that picture. You see lots of concrete and asphalt, cracked and faded. There’s nothing really redeeming about this area... except the bright little decoration someone added to the bike rack. =)
Later, I learned this is called yarn bombing, and it’s gone global. This is a simple case of yarn bombing, but a few Internet searches found some that were absolutely incredible.
Take the following for example:
These stumps—located in Sammamish north of Seattle—were eyesores. Apparently they were meant to be turned into totem poles, but then money became scarce, and eventually the stumps were decorated with ‘coats.’ As the seasons changed from winter to spring, so did the coat!
A couple of weeks after I found that original bike rack yarn bombing, Amanda, on a layover in Denver, called me about the most amazing piece of yarn bombing she’d ever seen—at a construction site, no less! With a little help from Google, I found what she was talking about. The city of Denver, it seems, commissioned this little piece of work to spread a little joy for those walking along the construction site. Way cool! Who ever thought a chain-link fence could look so pretty? =)
Then I discovered that the second Saturday of June is International Yarn Bombing Day, and really, how cool is that? A whole day dedicated to yarn bombing the world! That, I thought, needed a theme! And thus, this theme was born. =)
In related news, if you want to talk about knitting, crocheting, yarn bombing, or any of those fiber arts, there’s a Knitters and the Fiber Arts board available on Atlas Quest. Drop in and say hi! Who knows what you’ll find? =)
